They Who See God’s Hand: The Tree of Life as an “Upbuilding Discourse”
[Ed. note: A very, very welcome guest post from Nicholas Olson] The very moment everything was taken away from Job, he knew it was the Lord who’d taken it away. He turned from the passing shows of time. He sought that which is eternal. Does he alone see God’s hand who sees that He gives? Or does not also the one see God’s hand who sees that He takes away? Or does he alone... Read More
The Avengers (Whedon, 2012)
Caution: The following review was written by a moviegoer who has been suffering from superhero-movie fatigue since X-Men 3 back in 2006. You have been warned. Don’t worry — I get it. My review of The Avengers won’t make a dollar’s difference in the box office results. The best stunt you’ll see now that the film has opened is its rocket-blast rush toward breaking... Read More
Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love, and Death of a Punk Goddess (Ayers, 2011)
Since becoming a parent, I’ve become acutely aware of movies that deal with the impact that parents, and particularly fathers, have on their children’s lives, for better or worse. Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Still Walking fascinated me so because of that theme. Malick’s The Tree of Life left me shaking and undone because of it. It explains why, as much as I want... Read More
A Monster in Paris (Bergeron, 2012)
A Monster in Paris is a film meticulously designed for international success. The poster might as well be advertising another Dreamworks movie: bright, angular, with the usual satisfied smirks — it even proudly proclaims “from the director of Shark Tale.” The film is actually from the French production company Europa, but you’d hardly know it. There’s... Read More
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Billy Wilder, 1970)
In most of these essays, I try to keep a pretense of critical distance. That is, I point out whatever loose sally of thought the movie in question inspires and then proceed from there, without venturing much comment on the quality of the movie itself. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, however, must stand as an exception to this rule, for the simple reason that I love it too much.... Read More
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Durkin, 2011)
“Cult” as a label has recently re-entered national conversation on the heels of conservative voters trying to figure out how to best think about Mitt Romney’s Mormon religious affiliation. The ensuing confusion expressed at times in this debate is a good example of how fluid and misunderstood this term often is. For recent generations, the images connected to this term are... Read More
The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2011)
The Secret World of Arrietty, the new Studio Ghibli film, isn’t really a Miyazaki, but you could easily mistake it for one. Disney’s marketing has carefully pitched the film as being “from the studio that brought you Spirited Away and Ponyo,” both Miyazakis, and it could happily fit somewhere between those films and another of his films, My Neighbor Totoro.... Read More
Fish Story (Yoshihiro Nakamura, 2009)
It’s the year 2012 and as it turns out, the Mayans were right: Earth is doomed. An asteroid is heading our way, and it seems that nobody, not even the United States can save us (their ambitious asteroid-busting mission has failed). But we still have one thing on our side that the Mayans and their “Long Count” didn’t predict: punk rock. And not just any... Read More
A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)
By the third time out or so, you realize that a filmmaker you’ve only been vaguely or even just accidentally keeping up with clearly deserves more particular notice – and so you sit up and pay attention, remember the name, start looking for it on festival schedules, indeed, choose that name over others, becoming attuned to obviously ongoing stylistic and thematic concerns... Read More
Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
(Ed.: Today we have a welcome guest post from Nicholas Olson, who pens The Moviegoer.) Audiences were largely unsure about what to make of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love when it was released almost a decade ago. Part of the quizzical reaction was that it was not a standard Adam Sandler film. Even critics found Anderson’s romantic dramedy peculiar: “none of it makes... Read More
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